**TL; DR: Blackfishing is a real and racist trend that goes beyond mere cultural appreciation. Through fake tan and the tanning industry in general (including tanning beds, spray tan and even tanning injections), people are identifying as a person of colour by darkening their skin. Whether the intention be malicious or not, there is a fine line between a ‘sun-kissed’ look and racism.** Fake tanning can go too far as people are no longer wishing to achieve the ‘holiday version’ of themselves but, instead, are masquerading as another race, in particular, a minority race. This transcends the boundary of cultural appreciation and becomes highly controversial cultural appropriation as people of a dominant culture are adopting a singular element of a disadvantaged minority. Therefore, it becomes problematic that fake tanners can scrub off their skin colour once they get bored, whilst people of colour have to endure the hardships of racism always. The term ‘blackfishing’ has been coined to refer to the concept that fake tan can be deceptive and, therefore, racist. [Tilly Judges](https://www.thegryphon.co.uk/2019/03/25/blackfishing-can-fake-tan-be-racist/) defines it as ‘girls on social media who aren’t pretending to be other people, but are manipulating their skin, hair and facial features to appear to be a race that they aren’t. The majority of these girls are white European and the majority of the features that are being adopted are those that belong to ethnic minorities’. Although fake tanners may not intend to offend, by seeking to emulate they are not recognising their privilege. [Samantha McMeekin](https://www.beautycrew.com.au/fake-tan-racist) observes that ‘while many may argue that it’s a good thing that these stereotypically-black features are being celebrated and coveted, the issue with Blackfishing is that it is white women who are being celebrated and white women who are capitalising on these traits. White women who have never had to experience the racism and daily injustices that black women have endured.’ By assessing the history of desired skin colour, fake tan seems like a mere trend. Originally, in the Medieval period, white skin was deemed more attractive as it signified that someone was wealthy and need not spend time labouring outside under the sun. This association continued to the extreme through the European Renaissance to the point that white people would fear the sun and avoid tanning at all costs. [Saskia Teterycz](https://www.evanstonian.net/opinion/2019/08/21/12064/) writes that, ‘many went so far as to paint their skin with whitening compounds, many of which contained lead bases that deteriorated the skin cells and resulted in many deaths.’ Such complexion obsession heightened at the time of colonisation and the transatlantic slave trade as those with dark skin were persecuted, which consequently caused a racist rhetoric to emerge in entertainment and media. However, now, the trends are changing again as people are going beyond the attempt to achieve a ‘sun-kissed’ look with the result, and often the intention, of identifying as a person of colour. Fake tan is therefore, sometimes, racist because people are entering an ‘ethnically ambiguous’ territory as [Sukriti Wahi](https://www.beautycrew.com.au/fake-tan-racist) puts it. And so, fake tanners are able to be [‘black without the burden’](https://www.evanstonian.net/opinion/2019/08/21/12064/) as they can manipulate their skin into a darker colour without having to worry about stereotypes and social prejudice against black people. Once fake tanners are bored of the personal benefit they receive from identifying as a darker colour, they can simply wash it all away ignoring and sometimes being ignorant of the racial hardships faced by those they pretend to be.

Echoing what user georgiebeddows stated, POC often grow up wishing they could change their skin tone and feeling a sense of shame surrounding it and all it connotes. In spite of the beauty of their features and culture, they are mocked and shamed and subjected to cruelty for it. While there is no issue with wishing to emulate the glow of laying in the sun, this is not everyone's intention and to parade around in a skin tone darker than certain POC is to be completely insensitive and blackfish, sometimes even veering into blackface territory. It is easy to wash it off once you are done being brown, but it is just life and natural for people who were born with that skin tone who do not have the luxury of merely changing their skin tone whenever it suits them. Furthermore, it has caused an uprising in people deciding to label other POC "white-passing," when the reality is that these self-proclaimed "tanners" (blackfishers) are blurring the lines and making it hard to discern what whiteness looks like since so many white people are attempting to look ethnically ambiguous.

**Fake tan can racist, but there is a thin line between using fake tan too much and using it just to look slightly tanned** - Fake tan can be preferential to a natural tan due to the skin damage associated with [natural tan from the sun](https://www.webmd.com/melanoma-skin-cancer/ss/slideshow-sun-damaged-skin) if used in an appropriate amount - However when so much fake tan is used where the white person is attempting to appear as a person of colour is racist as they do not face any of the [same inequality or prejudice that people of colour do.](https://www.evanstonian.net/opinion/2019/08/21/12064/)

Challenging racism is more about reconstructing systematic, institutionalised practices and power imbalances. Tanning is a rather fickle subject in the grand scale of things.